13 Sept 2024
Ugh. I did not sleep well last night. I kept waking up thinking I’d slept through my alarm only to roll over and find maybe an hour had passed since the last time I woke up in a panic. Plus, it doesn’t get below 80°F / 27° at night here so I slept with the AC on and while it kept my room cool, it is noisy.
The majority of the dives here are within minutes of the resort:
so even though it’s toasty out and my suit is thick (despite the warm water, I’m wearing a 5mm), I usually suited up before we left the dock. Dives here are 45-50 minutes, but if I was one of the first to splash and the last to get out I could usually stretch that to closer to an hour. Still shorter than I’d like (especially since the water is warm and I’m not limited by getting cold), but acceptable enough.
Dive #2 – Hole in the Wall
Saucereye porgy:
another Yellowline arrow crab (these guys ended up being pretty common):
Patchy bleaching on this barrel coral:
Queen angelfish:
Spotted eagle ray off in the distance:
Flamingo tongue:
One-armed banded coral shrimp:
Little trumpetfish, hiding in the coral:
A not-so-stealthy trumpetfish sticking his head out:
A horde of blue tang:
These guys are algae-eaters and help keep the coral clean. Definitely need more of them because while the bleaching isn’t too bad, the reef is fairly overrun by algae.
Juvenile spotlight parrotfish:
Dive #3 – Wayne’s Place
Free-swimming eel!
It was fairly common to see eels swimming around here- apparently it’s ok to hunt lionfish, so the guides kill and feed the lionfish to the eels, and they’ve been conditioned to know when a possible treat is coming. While I appreciate the crackdown on the invasive lionfish, I’m not sure I approve of feeding the wildlife…
Stoplight parrotfish (terminal phase):
And an initial phase Spotlight parrotfish:
I love how smiley these chompy guys always look!
Smooth trunkfish!!!
Couldn’t get him to face me for a picture 🙁
Lizardfish:
A pair of flamingo tongues:
The TINIEST arrow blenny:
he was about 1cm long!
Dive #4 – Pillar Coral
A crinoid/sea feather safely attached to a coral:
Unlike the one that became attached to me…
Banded butterflyfish:
Grouper!!!
There were so many of these guys swimming around, and they weren’t afraid to come close to us divers (I’m guessing they too are used to being fed). It was a little disconcerting though to look up and see a large fish swimming so close though!
Neck crab:
Black durgon:
usually these guys are quite skittish, and while the ones here still kept their distance, they did come close/swim off slower than most I’ve seen.
Napping turtle:
Nassau grouper:
Tobaccofish:
Something took a chomp out of this little blue tang 🙁
Free-swimming Sharptail eel:
Mutton snapper:
Little grouper being cleaned:
A pair of flamingo tongues:
(no, I’m not sure why some of them are completely spotted while others have more white space)
I’m still trying to figure out the timing of things here- there’s about a 3 hour gap between the afternoon dive and dinner so I used that time to get a jump on editing pictures and took a short nap. I ran into a fun group of divers from my boat and learned that most people fill the time between diving and dinner hanging out at the bar enjoying happy hour. Makes sense 🙂 I ate with them then called it an early night. I’m on day 2 of not getting much sleep and was crashing. Hopefully I can get back on a normal schedule tomorrow.